W. Douglass Shaw

I have been teaching for over twenty years. I have taught at many different types of educational institutions ranging from special settings like community colleges, to research universities. I taught for almost six years at some of the elite liberal arts (four-year) colleges in the U.S. I also taught enlisted men and women of the U.S. Air Force some basic economics at Lowry Airforce Base in Denver, Colorado, and I taught older students at Metropolitan State College in Downtown Denver in the 1980's. The students I have taught over these years have varied enormously in their backgrounds and abilities, from people without a high-school education, to graduate students who had undergraduate degrees from MIT. The one consistent goal I have had throughout all of these experiences is to try to help students learn how to think for themselves. Learning is hard, but it can also be fun. I do not believe the most important thing is a student's grade. It is whether they have tried their hardest to learn something about the subject. My favorite thing about teaching is that I most often get to learn from my students, and while preparing topics. My least favorite thing about teaching is either grading exams, or having students who make it clear that they only care about their final letter grade in my course.